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3 weeks ago | 
rascal.news | Lin Codega
tabletop — 4 min read While Trump and the courts continue to play tariff tennis, more small businesses are finding themselves faced with tough decisions — as we’ve seen over the past weeks, tabletop is not among the least of the industries affected. One segment that professionals and hobbyists have been watching carefully is the effect tariffs will have on games that were crowdfunded before the trade war began.
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1 month ago | 
rascal.news | Lin Codega
culture — 7 min read Standing outside one of the massive sound stages at Universal Studio City, surrounded by fake foliage and buzzing production crew in bright yellow vests, Stephen Siercks, the Senior Director, Entertainment Production, Universal Studios Hollywood asks us not to take pictures.
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2 months ago | 
rascal.news | Lin Codega
tabletop — 5 min read This post is for paying subscribers only
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2 months ago | 
rascal.news | Lin Codega
Every year since 2022, game designer Rue Dickey has organized TTRPGS for Trans Rights, a charity drive that supports various state organizations working to advance transgender rights and provide safe spaces for queer folks. Working with Rina Amaranthine, a cultural consultant and mentorship program chair for the Rose Gauntlet Foundation, the two organizers collect donated games from designers and publishers, bundle (most of) them on itch.io, and sell them starting at $5.
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Mar 19, 2025 | 
rascal.news | Lin Codega
On Thursday, March 13, 2025, the Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education Act (and yes, it is called the F.U.R.R.I.E.S Act in the filing) was presented to the Texas House of Representatives by Representative Stan Gerdes.
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Jan 21, 2025 | 
rascal.news | Lin Codega
tabletop — 6 min read On January 8, in the middle of a pair of urban firestorms that would become the worst the city had ever seen, the Los Angeles Times posted a slideshow on Instagram titled, “A fire is forcing you to evacuate. What should you pack?” It provided a comprehensive checklist for what to place into your “go-bag,” which is typically a large duffel that you can carry on your back if you are stranded without transportation in a worst-case scenario.
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Jan 7, 2025 | 
rascal.news | Lin Codega
Early Saturday afternoon, I braved Los Angeles traffic to head downtown to the Central Library to meet my Fate. Fate Accelerated, at least. In the Octavia Lab, a makerspace in the library, surrounded by 3D printers and recording booths, three tables were set up with custom maps, a Game Master at each table. The Lab had commissioned Tai Gomez to create a tabletop roleplaying game for a celebration of Octavia E. Butler in July.
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
rascal.news | Lin Codega
tabletop — 6 min read When I took a step back from Rascal, I was a little obtuse about the exact nature of the job I accepted in Los Angeles. But I’ve been public about it elsewhere, and now I want to blog about it. I am working as the Writers Room Assistant for Interview With the Vampire, Season 3. Like many positions deemed essential in show business, it sounds slightly fancy and it is deeply unglamorous.
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Aug 26, 2024 | 
rascal.news | Lin Codega
tabletop — 6 min read In 2022, D&D Beyond had over 10 million subscribers. While that number has fluctuated (and was impacted by the social media-led boycott in early 2023 after the “learning opportunity” presented by Open Gaming License debacle) it’s probably safe to estimate that the number of subscribers currently lies around well north of 2022’s 10 million estimate. D&D Beyond, which was launched in 2017, has always been focused on Fifth Edition.
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Aug 16, 2024 | 
rascal.news | Lin Codega
I’m going to start with numbers; numbers are easy. Rascal ran a pledge drive in July to increase our paying readership. We posted about it here, and, publicly, at least, we had some pretty lofty goals. We started the month with about 1,050 paying subscribers, and while we had pledge goals listed up to 100,000 subscribers (maybe next year TSR Museum in Lake Geneva), internally our expectations were more modest.
